For quite a while the 2024 Knox County Spelling Bee resembled the "Rocky" movie in which heavyweights Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed battle toe-to-toe round after round.
The competition in the Mount Vernon High School theater eventually came down to Carsyn Adkins, a Fredericktown sixth-grader, and Lucas Colopy, an East Knox seventh-grader, before Adkins emerged as the champion in the 38th – yes, 38th – round.
Balboa and Creed went only 15 rounds.
The 64th annual county bee began with 19 competitors, fifth- through eighth-graders, who qualified by winning their grade-level bees at Centerburg, Danville, East Knox, Fredericktown and Mount Vernon.
The field dwindled during the first 12 rounds as each contestant came to the microphone to hear Taylor Gingery, gifted consultant at the Knox Educational Service Center, pronounce their word. County commissioners Teresa Bemiller, Bill Pursel and Thom Collier served as judges, ringing a bell to signal misspellings.
By the 13th round, only three were left standing – Adkins, Colopy and East Knox sixth-grader Callie May. May held her own until the 27th round, when she stumbled on “lymphoma.”
Over the next 11 rounds, Adkins and Colopy awed the audience as they correctly spelled a litany of difficult words, including “dendrochronology,” “Trinidadian,” “frijoles,” “Gilgamesh, “lanthanides” and “sphagnum.”
Colopy misspelled “Copenhagen” at the outset of the 38th round. Adkins claimed the championship by correctly spelling “Macedonia.”
Clutching her trophy afterward, Adkins admitted to “being a little nervous” on stage.
Asked how she thought she had become a standout speller, she said, “I read a lot and my favorite subject is English.”
Fredericktown spelling bee coach Ben McClay described Adkins as “a great student, an honor student.”
“Carsyn won this entirely on her own. My only role was to organize the logistics for our school bee,” McClay said. “Carsyn is super bright. She is on our Academic Challenge team. This is our first year to be in Academic Challenge, and we will compete later this school year at the Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center in Mansfield.”
Adkins now qualifies to take next month’s online qualifying test for the Ohio Region Two Scripps National Spelling Bee competition in March. Ohio’s eventual winner will participate in the national bee in Maryland during Memorial Day weekend.
The county bee was facilitated by the Knox Educational Service Center. The Mount Vernon Rotary Foundation provided $1,000 to provide the winner and runner-up trophies, T-shirts, certificates and gift cards for all participants and refreshments. Colonial Book Shop and Kids Shelf provided discounts for the gift cards.
